Election Fallout 6 – China

In a trenchant article, The New York Times has detailed the effects that Donald Trump’s tough talk about the flight of US industry abroad could have on manufacturing enterprises that are still managing to make it Stateside. Those interviewed in the article are of the well-informed opinion that, while Trump’s threaten tariffs are more likely to push manufacturing from China to Vietnam or Indonesia than to return jobs to the US, they could succeed in making US-made products non-competitive by raising the costs domestic manufacturers would have to pay for internationally-sourced parts and software. The lesson: Whether we like it or not, the world economy is too interconnected for any country – including as wealthy and powerful as the US – to it alone.